Robert Olson’s "The Siege of Mosul and Ottoman-Persian Relations, 1718-1743: A Study of Rebellion in the Capital and War in the Provinces of the Ottoman Empire" tells the epic story of how the failed economic and diplomatic polices of the Ottoman Empire from 1718 to 1743 resulted in the inability of the Porte to come to the aid of the people of Mosul in 1743 when it was attacked by Nadir Shah Afshar, the greatest Shah of Persia since the time of Shah Abbas the Great. Olson brilliantly accounts the reasons why Nadir Shah, the great conqueror of Mughal India in 1739, was also unable to capture Mosul in 1743. The siege became a symbol of patriotic war, a jihad, for the defense of the homeland. This book could hardly have appeared at a more propitious time in the history of the peoples of Iraq and Iran and the Middle East. In a new introduction, Olson stresses that the major geopolitical and geostrategic consequence of the siege was that Great Britain and Russia—two non-Muslim empires—were then to dominate the Middle East and Central Asia (and India) right up to 1948. The Ottoman and Persian failures at Mosul in 1743 should have served as lessons well learned. But 274 years later, as the current ‘Battle for Mosul’ rages—they were not.

Robert Olson

Robert Olson is Professor of Middle East history and politics at the University of Kentucky (Emeritus). He is the author of ten books of various aspects of Middle East history and politics. His major books are: The Siege of Mosul and Ottoman- Persian Relations: 1718-1743; The Emergence of Kurdish Nationalism and the Sheikh Said Rebellion: 1880-1925; Turkey's Relations with Iran, 1979-2004;The Kurdish Question and Turkish-Iranian Relations:From World I to 2000; Blood, Beliefs and Ballots: The Management of Kurdish Nationalism in Turkey, 2007-2000; The Kurdish Nationalist Movements in Turkey: 1980-2011; The Goat and the Butcher: Nationalism and State Formation in Kurdistan-Iraq since the Iraqi War War. He is the author of 75 referred research articles and 60 edited research articles. He was distinguished Professor of the University of Kentucky in 2000. He is married and lives in Lexington, Kentucky.

ForewordIntroduction to the New ReleasePrefaceAcknowledgementsList of Maps and GraphsNote on Transliterations and SpellingAbbreviations and Journals and Reference Works

Introduction

CHAPTER 1. the Geographical and Strategic Importance of the Eastern Provinces and Mosul: An Economic and Historical Background